In the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romaoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is still on the run from the authorities after going against the Sokovia Accords with Captain America and his now imprisoned team of Avengers. While hiding out in Norway, Natasha is attacked by a supersoldier known as Taskmaster who is after a package containing several vials sent to her by her estranged adoptive sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) who like Natasha was raised to be an assassin as part of the program The Red Room. Natasha reunites with Yelena learning the vials are an antidote to chemical conditioning used on other "Widows" like Yelena with the seemingly defunct Red Room still operating under the direction of General Dreykov (Ray Winstone). With the antidote in hand and chased by Task Master, the two setoff to gather information from former spies and adoptive parents Axeis Shostakov (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz) and set out to bring down the Red Room and free the Widows under Dreykov's control.
Black Widow is the long in development stand alone entry focusing on the longtime MCU character Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow who despite being present from Iron Man 2 and appearing prominently in both the Captain America series and Avengers films, had a standalone film featuring the character lingering in development hell despite audience demand for the character. The reason for the delays were often attributed to the "crowded" MCU schedule with the Black Widow film often losing priority due to other more pressing films in terms of establishing the Infinity Saga and Thanos and the film went through multiple revisions and incarnations. When the film was completed, it was primed as a blockbuster for the 2020 movie season only like so many other films to be delayed until the following year due to the ongoing covid pandemic and upon release was at the lower end of MCU films due to the premier access on Disney+ among other factors. Critical and audience reception tended to skew mostly positive and I will say that despite my hesitance at a Black Widow movie this late in the MCU's life, the end result is a decent entry in the franchise.
I think going into Black Widow with the series being a prequel, there was the lingering question of "why does this need to exist?". With Black Widow having died during the events of Avengers: Endgame and a story focusing on a brief blind spot shortly before the end of Captain America: Civil War, I think there were hurdles inherent to any prequel in that I already knew where the character would end up and we're now establishing characters and threads that don't have baring on current or future parts of the series. Despite the baggage associated with the premise, the movie does do a solid job of diving into Natasha's character and with the establishment of her "family" of sleeper spies the movie does go for something of a dysfunctional family dramedy intertwined with a spy flick by way of the MCU and I did actually enjoy many of the scenes featuring Natasha's fake family operating as if they were a real and estranged family. I particularly enjoyed David Harbour as Alexei who was a soviet superhero known as the Red Guardian who is sort of like a drunken bumbling counterpoint to Captain America and he walks the line between being funny and action oriented with his tight fitting Red Guardian costume making him a bit like Homer Simpson if he were a superhero. In terms of antagonists Task Masker and Dreykov are decent and provide legitimate threats for Yelena and Natasha to square off against, but they really don't stretch too far from the standard established by forerunners in this type of movie ranging from Le Femme Nikita to other examples like Anna, Salt, or Colombiana so there is that underlying familiarity the movie is working against, but the fact it plays it with more humor and character does help alleviate it to a point.
In hindsight a Black Widow film probably should've come much earlier than it ultimately did and the fact that we're only getting one after the character is already dead does feel like it makes the film feel less impactful than it should. However despite the questionable need for a stand-alone Black Widow film I did enjoy the performances as well as the action beats making it a decent entry in the MCU.
Black Widow is the long in development stand alone entry focusing on the longtime MCU character Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow who despite being present from Iron Man 2 and appearing prominently in both the Captain America series and Avengers films, had a standalone film featuring the character lingering in development hell despite audience demand for the character. The reason for the delays were often attributed to the "crowded" MCU schedule with the Black Widow film often losing priority due to other more pressing films in terms of establishing the Infinity Saga and Thanos and the film went through multiple revisions and incarnations. When the film was completed, it was primed as a blockbuster for the 2020 movie season only like so many other films to be delayed until the following year due to the ongoing covid pandemic and upon release was at the lower end of MCU films due to the premier access on Disney+ among other factors. Critical and audience reception tended to skew mostly positive and I will say that despite my hesitance at a Black Widow movie this late in the MCU's life, the end result is a decent entry in the franchise.
I think going into Black Widow with the series being a prequel, there was the lingering question of "why does this need to exist?". With Black Widow having died during the events of Avengers: Endgame and a story focusing on a brief blind spot shortly before the end of Captain America: Civil War, I think there were hurdles inherent to any prequel in that I already knew where the character would end up and we're now establishing characters and threads that don't have baring on current or future parts of the series. Despite the baggage associated with the premise, the movie does do a solid job of diving into Natasha's character and with the establishment of her "family" of sleeper spies the movie does go for something of a dysfunctional family dramedy intertwined with a spy flick by way of the MCU and I did actually enjoy many of the scenes featuring Natasha's fake family operating as if they were a real and estranged family. I particularly enjoyed David Harbour as Alexei who was a soviet superhero known as the Red Guardian who is sort of like a drunken bumbling counterpoint to Captain America and he walks the line between being funny and action oriented with his tight fitting Red Guardian costume making him a bit like Homer Simpson if he were a superhero. In terms of antagonists Task Masker and Dreykov are decent and provide legitimate threats for Yelena and Natasha to square off against, but they really don't stretch too far from the standard established by forerunners in this type of movie ranging from Le Femme Nikita to other examples like Anna, Salt, or Colombiana so there is that underlying familiarity the movie is working against, but the fact it plays it with more humor and character does help alleviate it to a point.
In hindsight a Black Widow film probably should've come much earlier than it ultimately did and the fact that we're only getting one after the character is already dead does feel like it makes the film feel less impactful than it should. However despite the questionable need for a stand-alone Black Widow film I did enjoy the performances as well as the action beats making it a decent entry in the MCU.